South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers

Mother Jones:

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus--a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

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Comments

[bknip1]

03:02 PM on 04/12/2011

Sadistically hilarious! So now the taxpayers in South Dakota can indirectly pay for the doctor to write off the cost of using personal security, home security, security for their clinic and employees.Every doctor in that state just got a big tax deduction. Very Clever PepubliCON's. Well it will create some new jobs if you're in security.

[Hank Missenheim Jr]

12:39 AM on 03/04/2011

hey moderator, start doing your job!

[Danielle Dusold]

09:55 PM on 03/02/2011

This truly disgusts me. How can you call yourself pro-life? What is wrong with people? Wake up- there are some people that really need to have access to abortions. Like rape victims, scared teenage girls, incest victims, women who will die, and honestly why are we allowing others to make decisions that should be left to the individual?

[Demgirls]

03:40 AM on 02/19/2011

Some states will do anything to get attention.

[scoobanchi]

12:27 AM on 02/18/2011

Don't kill or I'll kill you. Killing is bad.

[weirdamerica]

08:54 PM on 02/17/2011

What a bunch of back woods oafs.

[OneFish]

07:55 PM on 02/17/2011

These people are, to steal a phrase from another poster, suffering from bewildering mental afflictions.

[GreenKate]

11:18 AM on 02/17/2011

Conservatives have never been "pro life". They are always pro war, don't believe in any type of assistance to the poor. They oppose you having health insurance if you will not be profitable to the insurance companies. They love the death penalty. They oppose safety regulations and want to take away your right to sue if you have been injured by corporate negligence. They even oppose Michelle Obama trying to improve the decades-old school lunch program for the well being of children. Every time one of them claims to be "pro life" we should correct them and tell them why. I'm amazed that we have let them get by with lying all these years.

[Kenneth Berglund]

10:29 PM on 02/16/2011

Republicans prefer to kill babies after they are born, by cutting funding for food and healthcare.

[OneFish]

07:56 PM on 02/17/2011

starting wars seems to be all the rage too.

[Jaxy]

11:40 PM on 02/17/2011

Yeah, that. And sending them off to fight bogus wars in the freaking desert, and not having the basic decency to receive their flag-draped caskets when they are killed in battle.

[Dreamofflowers]

10:27 PM on 02/16/2011

Just another way to discriminate against women-

[PerryMason]

07:15 PM on 02/16/2011

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state's legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person "while resisting an attempt to harm" that person's unborn child....

Wouldn't that bill allow a child rapist, for example, to legally kill a doctor hired by the victim's parents to abort the rapist's fetus? Good work Phil. Will your next bill give rapists the same child custody and visitation rights as divorced dads?

Since 1993, eight doctors have been assassinated at the hands of anti-abortion extremists, and another 17 have been the victims of murder attempts. Instead of passing a law making such activities punishable under domestic terrorism laws, Rep. Phil Jensen wants to make it legal to kill doctors who are performing legal services he doesn't like. What's next Phil? Anti-abortion suicide bombers?

[Marcusarilius]

10:52 PM on 02/16/2011

With this new bill, I now consider state Rep. Phil Jensen to be an iminent threat. Sooooooooooo...

[Eclectic Radical]

04:18 PM on 02/16/2011

I hate to use cliched language, but we're seeing more evidence of the social and moral decay of the country in the debate over abortion than in nearly any other political issue we face (with the possible exception of civil rights) today. The 'immorality' of abortion is used by the violent, the power hungry, or the immoral to justify the surrender of reason to base animal passions. This weakens public morality as we are told that moral outrage justifies the abdication of moral responsibility.

I don't believe anyone believes abortion to be a 'good choice.' Not all situations allow good choices to be made. Sometimes a person must choose the bad choice most palatable to them. Abortion, carrying a child to term only to give it to someone else, and undesired parenthood are not the makings of any 'good choices.' The mother will suffer whatever she does and no one knows what precisely will happen, whatever she does. There is a risk of medical complications, whatever she does.

Any day now, I expect some congressman to propose the 'Charles Dickens Daycare bill.' This will fund a massive private corporation to assume control of a massive public orphanage and workhouse system to care for the children of working families. He'll be a Democrat and Republicans will kill his bill as 'socialist.'

[Pembrokelib]

11:34 PM on 02/17/2011

I admire your logic, your reasoning and your eloquence. The lack of moral
responsibility today is both sad and frightening.

[Pembrokelib]

11:36 PM on 02/17/2011

My post just after this was in meant for Eclectic Radical.

[TBrennan]

01:23 PM on 02/16/2011

What happens when the right to defend a fetus intersects with one's right to self defense? Sounds like a great formula for tragic violence.

I think abortion providers should emulate the tea baggers. First, exercise all the second amendment rights and purchase as much fire power as can be afforded. Emphasis on armor piercing ammo, automatic fire, and extended clips. Second, carry all these arms on your person. Third have the Don'tTread on Me flag tatooed to your forehead.

[booker52]

11:17 AM on 02/16/2011

Abortion is legal, this bill is stupid and so are the folks who wrote, sponsored it and those who think it OK to kill a doctor who provides this service.

[OneFish]

07:57 PM on 02/17/2011

We know THAT. Now what do we do to improve the quality of those in positions of power?

[Jeffrius]

09:04 AM on 02/16/2011

Note to self: stay the hell out of South Dakota.